Neutron matter from chiral effective field theory interactions
Abstract
The neutron-matter equation of state constrains the properties of many physical systems over a wide density range and can be studied systematically using chiral effective field theory (EFT). In chiral EFT, all many-body forces among neutrons are predicted to next-to-next-to-next-to-leading order (N3LO). We present details and additional results of the first complete N3LO calculation of the neutron-matter energy, which includes the subleading three-nucleon as well as the leading four-nucleon forces, and provides theoretical uncertainties. In addition, we discuss the impact of our results for astrophysics: for the supernova equation of state, the symmetry energy and its density derivative, and for the structure of neutron stars. Finally, we give a first estimate for the size of the N3LO many-body contributions to the energy of symmetric nuclear matter, which shows that their inclusion will be important in nuclear structure calculations.
- Publication:
-
Physical Review C
- Pub Date:
- August 2013
- DOI:
- 10.1103/PhysRevC.88.025802
- arXiv:
- arXiv:1304.2212
- Bibcode:
- 2013PhRvC..88b5802K
- Keywords:
-
- 21.65.Cd;
- 12.39.Fe;
- 21.30.-x;
- 26.60.Kp;
- Asymmetric matter neutron matter;
- Chiral Lagrangians;
- Nuclear forces;
- Equations of state of neutron-star matter;
- Nuclear Theory;
- Astrophysics - Solar and Stellar Astrophysics;
- High Energy Physics - Phenomenology;
- Nuclear Experiment
- E-Print:
- published version